This volume explores the various challenges faced by ​migrant unaccompanied children, using a clinical sociological approach and a global perspective. It applies a human rights and comparative framework to examine ​the reception of unaccompanied children ​in European, North American, South American, Asian and African countries. Some of the important issues the volume discusses are: access of displaced unaccompanied children to justice across borders and juridical contexts; voluntary guardianship for unaccompanied children; the diverse but complementary needs of unaccompanied children in care, which if left unaddressed can have serious implications on their social integration in the host societies; and the detention of migrant children as analyzed against the most recent European and international human rights law standards. This is a one-of-a-kind volume bringing together perspectives from child rights policy chairs across the world on a global issue. The contributions reflect the authors’ diverse cultural contexts and academic and professional backgrounds, and hence, this volume synthesizes theory with practice through rich firsthand experiences, along with theoretical discussions. It is addressed not only to academics and professionals working on and with migrant children, but also to a wider, discerning public interested in a better understanding of the rights of unaccompanied children.

In 2012 around 1,200 unaccompanied migrant children sought asylum in the UK, and around 2,150 unaccompanied migrant children were being cared for by local authorities. The Committee heard evidence of the range of issues that unaccompanied migrant children face during their time in the country. Children who had often faced traumatic journeys, many of whom are fleeing violence or who have been subject to abuse and exploitation, faced intensive interviews on arrival for which there were too rarely interpreting facilities available. There was also evidence of children being placed in inappropriate accommodation facilities without suitably trained staff to provide support, which was a point of particular anxiety where children were victims of trafficking. Concerns were also expressed about the educational services provided, with delays in enrolment due to documentation and too little development as language skills improved. These concerns built upon those expressed in a recent inquiry by Members of both Houses regarding destitution and inadequate support. The Committee concludes that, despite the rights to protection and support owed to those children by the UK under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, immigration concerns are too often given priority. The report calls for a change in emphasis to put the best interests of such children at the heart of the often complex and stressful asylum and immigration processes affecting them.

Unaccompanied minor migrants are underage migrants, who for various reasons leave their country and are separated from their parents or legal/customary guardians. Some of them live entirely by themselves, while others join their relatives or other adults in a foreign country. The concept of the best interests of a child is widely applied in international, national legal documents and several guidelines and often pertains to unaccompanied minor migrants given that they are separated from parents, who are not able to exercise their basic parental responsibilities. This book takes an in-depth look at the issues surrounding the best interests of the child in relation to unaccompanied minor migrants drawing on social, legal and political sciences in order to understand children’s rights not only as a matter of positive law but mainly as a social practice depending on personal biographies, community histories and social relations of power. The book tackles the interpretation of the rights of the child and the best interests principle in the case of unaccompanied minor migrants in Europe at political, legal and practical levels. In its first part the book considers theoretical aspects of children’s rights and the best interests of the child in relation to unaccompanied minor migrants. Adopting a critical approach to the implementation of the Convention of Rights of a Child authors nevertheless confirm its relevance for protecting minor migrants’ rights in practice. Authors deconstruct power relations residing within the discourses of children’s rights and best interests, demonstrating that these rights are constructed and decided upon by those in power who make decisions on behalf of those who do not possess authority. Authors further on explore normative and methodological aspects of Article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of a Child and its relevance for asylum and migration legislation. The second part of the book goes on to examine the actual legal framework related to unaccompanied minor migrants and implementation of children’s’ rights and their best interests in the reception, protection, asylum and return procedures. The case studies are based on from the empirical research, on interviews with key experts and unaccompanied minor migrants in Austria, France, Slovenia and United Kingdom. Examining age assessment procedures, unaccompanied minors’ survivals strategies and their everyday life in reception centres the contributors point to the discrepancy between the states’ obligations to take the best interest of the child into account when dealing with unaccompanied minor migrants, and the lack of formal procedures of best interest determination in practice. The chapters expose weaknesses and failures of institutionalized systems in selected European countries in dealing with unaccompanied children and young people on the move.

The child asylum seeker poses unique challenges for reception and refugee status determination systems, not least because the child is entitled to have his or her rights as a child respected as a matter of international and regional human rights law. In the last decade the European Union has increasingly engaged with children’s rights, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009, and a new Article 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union that commits the Union to promoting the ‘protection of the rights of the child.’ This book addresses the question of whether the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) complies with the rights of the child. It contrasts the normative standards of international child rights law with the treatment of child asylum seekers and refugees in the CEAS. Ciara Smyth identifies the attributes of the rights of the child that are most relevant to the asylum context and systematically examines whether and to what extent those attributes are reflected in the CEAS legislation. The book goes on to assess whether the CEAS instruments direct Member States to comply with the rights of the child, offering a comprehensive examination of the place of the child within European asylum law and policy. The book will be of great use and interest to scholars and students of international law, immigration and children’s rights studies.

In times of increasing migration flows, Greece is often viewed as the gateway to Europe for significantly high numbers of asylum-seeking individuals, including unaccompanied minors. Between 2016 and 2020, under Greek law unaccompanied children were to be temporarily placed in a protective environment upon irregular entry, pending referral to suitable accommodation. However, in reality they were being subjected to detention procedures instead. Giving voice to migrant children and professionals throughout, the author combines legal analysis with criminology and unveils the discrepancy between the law and practice. The findings demonstrate that unaccompanied children in Greece are criminalised through detention processes, while being deprived of the right to be heard. This book promotes child-friendly practices in the international migration setting, with a view to safeguarding the fundamental rights of unaccompanied minors experiencing detention upon arrival in host countries.

Unaccompanied child asylum seekers are amongst the world’s most vulnerable populations, and their numbers are increasing. The intersection of their age, their seeking asylum, and separation from their parents creates a specific and acute triple burden of vulnerability. Their precariousness has long been recognised in international human rights law. Yet, human rights-based responses have been subordinated to progressive global securitisation of irregular migration through interception, interdiction, extraterritorial processing and immigration detention. Such an approach necessitates an urgent paradigm shift in how we comprehend their needs as children, the impact of punitive border control laws on them, and the responsibility of States to these children when they arrive at their borders seeking asylum. This book reconceptualises the relationship between unaccompanied child asylum seekers and States. It proposes a new conceptual framework by applying international human rights law, childhood studies and vulnerability theory scholarship in analysing State obligations to respond to these children. This framework incorporates a robust analysis of the operation and impact of laws on vulnerable populations, a taxonomy for articulating the gravity of any consequent harms and a method to prioritise recommendations for reform. The book then illustrates the framework’s utility using Australia’s treatment of unaccompanied children as a case study. This book illuminates key learnings from human rights law, childhood studies and vulnerability theory and transforms them into a new roadmap for law reform. As such, it will be a valuable practice-based resource for practitioners, non-government organisations, advocates, policymakers and the general public interested in advocating for the rights of vulnerable populations as well as for academics, researchers and students of human rights law, refugee law, childhood studies and vulnerability studies.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union enshrines the key political, social and economic rights of EU citizens and residents in EU law. In its present form it was approved in 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission. However its legal status remained uncertain until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009. The Charter obliges the EU to act and legislate consistently with the Charter, and enables the EU's courts to strike down EU legislation which contravenes it. The Charter applies to EU Member States when they are implementing EU law but does not extend the competences of the EU beyond the competences given to it in the treaties. This Commentary on the Charter, the first in English, written by experts from several EU Member States, provides an authoritative but succinct statement of how the Charter impacts upon EU, domestic and international law. Following the conventional article-by-article approach, each commentator offers an expert view of how each article is either already being interpreted in the courts, or is likely to be interpreted. Each commentary is referenced to the case law and is augmented with extensive references to further reading. Six cross-cutting introductory chapters explain the Charter's institutional anchorage, its relationship to the Fundamental Rights Agency, its interaction with other parts of international human rights law, the enforcement mechanisms, extraterritorial scope, and the all-important 'Explanations'.

Unaccompanied Children: From Migration to Integration Edited by Işık Kulu-Glasgow, Monika Smit and Ibrahim Sirkeci | Published: 19 April 2019 | Paperback: ISBN: 978-1-912997-14-5 | “The statistics show that children move in great numbers, and many do so alone. While some of the reasons which motivate them to undertake such journeys alone are similar to those of adults – e.g. wars, pursuing aspirations for better social and economic opportunities, ethnic violence, cultural differences, examples of others migrating – others are more specific to children, such as forced child marriages, lack of educational opportunities, forced conscription or being sent ahead to realize family reunification in another country. Similar to adult companions, they suffer and react to ‘democratic deficit’ and ‘developmental (economic) deficit’ and yet they may become more vulnerable in their flight. Reaching their destination often does not mean they are then less vulnerable either. They are faced with specific challenges of integration on economic, social, and cultural dimensions and in many cases also face burdens of the reunification of their family. Yet, there is little attention paid to unaccompanied minors in the literature on ‘forced’ migration. This was an important reason to initiate this book. This book largely focuses on unaccompanied minors who arrived in a European country in 2015, with special attention paid to the top-three nationalities of unaccompanied minors, namely Syrian, Afghan and Eritrean minors.” Content INTRODUCTION – Işık Kulu-Glasgow, Monika Smit, Ibrahim Sirkeci CHAPTER 1 Syrian Unaccompanied Minors Journeys to Germany and initial experiences upon arrival – Raphael Kamp and Katie Kuschminder CHAPTER 2 ‘I just wanted to be safe’: Agency and decision-making among unaccompanied minor asylum seekers – Işık Kulu-Glasgow, Sanne Noyon, Monika Smit CHAPTER 3. Ways into and out of exploitation Unaccompanied minors and human trafficking – Hilde Lidén and Cathrine Holst Salvesen CHAPTER 4. Best Interests of the Child assessments to facilitate decision-making in asylum procedures – Carla van Os and Elianne Zijlstra. CHAPTER 5. Navigating the Immigration Process Alone: Unaccompanied Minors Experiences in the United States – Jennica Larrison and Mariglynn Edlins. CHAPTER 6. Dropping out of Education: Refugee Youth Who Arrived as Unaccompanied Minors and Separated Children – Aycan Çelikaksoy and Eskil Wadensjö. CHAPTER 7. Eritrean Unaccompanied Refugee Minors in The Netherlands: Wellbeing and Health – Anna de Haan, Yodit Jacob, Trudy Mooren and Winta Ghebreab. CHAPTER 8. Social Inclusion Processes for unaccompanied minors in the city of Palermo: Fostering Autonomy through a New Social Inclusion Model – Roberta Lo Bianco and Georgia Chondrou.

Thoroughly updated and featuring 75 new entries, this monumental four-volume work illuminates past and present events associated with civil rights and civil liberties in the United States. This revised and expanded four-volume encyclopedia is unequaled for both the depth and breadth of its coverage. Some 650 entries address the full range of civil rights and liberties in America from the Colonial Era to the present. In addition to many updates of material from the first edition, the work offers 75 new entries about recent issues and events; among them, dozens of topics that are the subject of close scrutiny and heated debate in America today. There is coverage of controversial issues such as voter ID laws, the use of drones, transgender issues, immigration, human rights, and government surveillance. There is also expanded coverage of women's rights, gay rights/gay marriage, and Native American rights. Entries are enhanced by 42 primary documents that have shaped modern understanding of the extent and limitations of civil liberties in the United States, including landmark statutes, speeches, essays, court decisions, and founding documents of influential civil rights organizations. Designed as an up-to-date reference for students, scholars, and others interested in the expansive array of topics covered, the work will broaden readers' understanding of—and appreciation for—the people and events that secured civil rights guarantees and concepts in this country. At the same time, it will help readers better grasp the reasoning behind and ramifications of 21st-century developments like changing applications of Miranda Rights and government access to private Internet data. Maintaining an impartial stance throughout, the entries objectively explain the varied perspectives on these hot-button issues, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.